1. Who are you and what do you do?
Ko Rach Adams toku ingoa. I’m originally from Waipawa, Central Hawkes Bay, but now based in Raglan with my family since 2005. I’m the General Manager of Maanaki – a social network and online training community for the small businesses of Aotearoa. Manaaki’s purpose is to help today’s small business owners become the strongest, savviest generation of entrepreneurs yet – especially our Māori and Pasifika whānau.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve worked with over 1000 small business owners and startup entrepreneurs spanning 50+ industries, in my roles at business hub Soda Inc. and now as GM of Manaaki. I’ve built and managed high-performing teams, run an international stage show Green Fire Islands that toured New Zealand and Europe, built small businesses, and have worked on building a scalable startup in healthcare.
2. Why did you join the PledgeMe crowd?
I’ve always been a fan of crowdfunding and was an early user of PledgeMe back in 2012. What I learned was the power of activating your fans and followers to buy into a project. Going through the process of launching the campaign taught me how important storytelling is and evoking a feeling in someone compelling enough for them to part with their hard-earned money. That was specifically for project funding but when equity crowdfunding came along, that took things to the next level which was awesome to see. Someone could become emotionally and financially invested in a project and in turn, would be a powerful sales ambassador for that project and win when the company wins.
3. What can you offer the PledgeMe crowd?
I would love to see more of our indigenous whānau using crowdfunding to activate their projects or grow their businesses, so happy to chat to anyone who wants to know how it could work for them. My calendar booking link is here.